According to Statistics Canada, Canadian industries operated at 81.1 percent of their production capacity in the fourth quarter, down from 81.6 percent in the previous quarter.
The construction capacity utilization rate declined from 84.7 percent to 83.7 percent, the fourth consecutive quarterly decrease. The decrease was attributable to lower activity in most industry subsectors.
After rising sharply in the previous quarter, the capacity utilization rate for oil and gas extraction fell 1.1 percentage points to 78.3 percent in the fourth quarter, as a result of a decrease in oil and gas extraction volumes.
The capacity utilization of the electric power generation, transmission and distribution industry decreased from 81.3 percent to 80.3 percent as a result of decreased production. This was the third straight quarterly decline.
Manufacturing as a whole operated at 83.3 percent of its capacity in the fourth quarter, edging down 0.1 percentage points from the previous quarter. Non-durable manufacturing was the main contributor to the decrease.
The capacity utilization rate for the primary metal industry rose 2.4 percentage points to 75.0 percent in the fourth quarter. This was the second straight quarterly increase after five consecutive quarterly declines. The increase in the fourth quarter was mainly the result of higher production in most of the industry's subsectors.